1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner with an aromatic spray apparatus attached at an indoor unit, and more particularly to an aromatic spay driving apparatus of the air conditioner for keeping room air pleasant by spraying an aromatic at the time intervals and time duration set as desired.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, an air conditioner includes a heating apparatus for supplying warm air by heating cold room air and a cooling apparatus for supplying cool air by cooling warm room air. Besides, a heating cum cooling apparatus is also included for a dual function of the heating and cooling operations and for an air purifying function which cleans the polluted room air.
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate an indoor unit of the heating cum cooling apparatus (generally, referred as an air conditioner) among conventional air conditioners. As shown in FIG. 1, an suction grille member(5) is provided at the lower front surface of an indoor unit main body (hereinafter referred to as a main body) with a plurality of suction inlets(3) to suck room air and with a plurality of discharge outlets(7) at the upper front surface of the main body to discharge the heat-exchanged air, i.e., the heated or cooled air, that is sucked through the suction inlets(3).
Furthermore, the discharge outlets(7) comprises vertical vanes(9) and horizontal vanes(11) for controlling the vertical and horizontal directions of the air discharged indoors therethrough(7), a covering member(15) attached for forming an external appearance thereof and for protecting the interior parts therein, and a operating part(17) disposed at the lower portion of the cover member(15) for controlling overall operation modes (automatic, cooling, dehumidifying, blowing, heating, etc.) of the air conditioner, a start or stop operation thereof and the amount and direction of the air discharged through the discharge outlets(7).
As shown in FIG. 2, there are a filtering member(19) disposed at the inner side of the suction grille member(5) for filtering dust and foreign objects floating with the room air sucked through the suction inlets(3) and a heat-exchanger(21) behind the filtering member(19) for heat-exchanging into heated air or cooled air through evaporative latent heat of a coolant.
In addition, the heat-exchanger(21) is disposed thereover with a blower fan(23) (hereinafter referred to as an indoor fan) which rotates according to operation of an indoor fan motor in order to suck the room air through the suction inlets(3) and, at the same time, to discharge through the discharge outlets(7) the air heat-exchanged at the heat-exchanger(21). The indoor fan(23) is also provided with a duct member(27) outside thereof for covering the indoor fan(23) and for guiding the flow of the air sucked through the suction inlets(3) and discharged through the discharge outlets(7).
In the air conditioner which has a dual function of the heating and cooling operations as described above, when an user turns on a start/stop key (hereinafter referred to as an operation key) with a remotely controlled unit or with the operating part(17) and selects a desired operation mode (for instance, cooling), the indoor fan(23) is rotated according to operation of an indoor fan motor(25) for sucking the room air into the main body(1) through the suction inlets(3).
The dust and foreign objects floating in the room air is sucked through the suction inlets(3) to be removed by the filtering mcmber(19), and the purified room air is then heat-exchanged into cool air at the heat-exchanger(21) through evaporative latent heat of a coolant.
The heat-exchanged and cooled air at the heat-exchanger(21) is guided upwards by the duct member(27) and is discharged indoors through the discharge outlets(7), to thereby cool indoors as the direction of the discharged air is controlled according to the angles of the vertical vanes(9) and horizontal vanes(11).
However, there is a problem in the conventional air conditioner in that even when the air conditioner is not in operation, the suction inlets(3) are left open to get dust and foreign objects infused and accumulated on the surface of the heat-exchanger(21), thereby deteriorating the function of the heat-exchanger(21).
Furthermore, there is another problem in the conventional air conditioner in that absence of a separate aromatic spraying apparatus reduces the pleasantness of room air due to an unpleasant odor generated by accumulation of the dust and foreign objects in the room air infused through the suction inlets(3) into the filtering member(19) and into the heat-exchanger(21) and by decomposition of chemical products like an insulation material provided therein.